WRESTLING AT PENIEL
Jacob, who is God’s representative and witness in the world, has been a bad witness, but he cannot continue that way, and so God is going to deal with him. To tell the truth, God will cripple him in order to get him.
The Lord also disciplines us: “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth . . .” (Heb. 12:6). That is His method. He disciplines in that way. Lot also did not look like he was a child of God—but he was, for Peter says that Lot “vexed his righteous soul” (see 2 Pet. 2:7–8).
But I tell you, Lot certainly was put through the fire. He escaped the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the Lord put him through the fires of testing. This is Jacob’s experience also. He got his college degree at the college of hard knocks.
Uncle Laban was president and dean of the school. At graduation, this boy Jacob gave a pitiful valedictorian address. It took him twenty years to get his degree, and he certainly worked for it.
Old Laban changed the requirements ten times. Every two years, Jacob had a new contract with Uncle Laban, and it was always to Jacob’s disadvantage. This was the experience of this man.
Genesis 32:24-26 KJV
[24] And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
[25] And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
[26] And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
Genesis 32:24 KJV
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
Genesis 32:25 KJV
And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
Genesis 32:26 KJV
And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
JACOB’S NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL
After sending his immediate family across the stream Jabbok (he will empty), Jacob spent the night alone at Peniel for what was to be one of the great experiences of his life.
A Man wrestled with him. That Man was an angel (Hos. 12:4), the Angel of Jehovah, the Lord Himself. The Lord put the socket of Jacob’s hip … out of joint, causing him to walk with a limp the rest of his life.
Although Jacob lost the encounter physically, he won a great spiritual victory. He learned to triumph through defeat and to be strong through weakness. Emptied of self and of confidence in his own cleverness, he confessed he was Jacob, a supplanter, a “con man.”
God then changed his name to Israel (variously translated as “God rules,” “one who strives with God,” or “a prince of God”). Jacob called the name of the place Peniel (the face of God) because he realized he had seen the Lord.
Genesis 32:27-32 KJV
[27] And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
[28] And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
[29] And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
[30] And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
[31] And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
[32] Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.
Genesis 32:27 KJV
And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
Genesis 32:28 KJV
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
Genesis 32:29 KJV
And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
Genesis 32:30 KJV
And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
Genesis 32:31 KJV
And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
Genesis 32:32 KJV
Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.
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